Ghost Hunting

There’s nothing creepier during a paranormal investigation than performing an EVP session in a room full of dolls and mannequins. While in another room at this location I was sitting on the floor next to a mannequin and had a vision of it falling over on top of my while I ran out the door, screaming like a little girl. Fortunately that vision never manifested itself.

This is a 3-exposure HDR image (+/-2EV) processed in Photomatix. After blending and tone mapping, I used the Camera Raw filter in Photoshop to make basic adjustments. I also used the dodge and burn tools to brighten some areas and reduce some highlights.

This photo was taken during a paranormal investigation at the Outlaws and Lawmen Museum in Cripple Creek, CO. This is the upstairs cell area generally reserved for female prisoners, but it’s also where an inmate with hepatitis was kept. Check out this video from the Ghost Adventures crew’s visit here: http://www.travelchannel.com/video/tale-of-the-colorado-spitter

This beautiful staircase was photographed during a paranormal investigation in Cripple Creek, CO. See the rocking duck on the landing below? While I was taking this shot, I thought to myself, “If that duck starts rocking on its own, I’m out of here.” Fortunately for me, it didn’t move because the only way out would have been to go down the stairs past it.

This is a 3-exposure HDR image processed with Photomatix. After blending and tonemapping, I used the Camera Raw filter in Photoshop to make basic adjustments. I added a curves adjustment layer as well.

This is an 11-second exposure taken on a paranormal investigation. One of our investigator friends has a photo taken on infared film showing what is believed to be the resident ghost known as “Maggie” standing on the right side of this doorway. This is the same place where my flashlight was dragged across the coffee table a few weeks earlier. On this night, one of our investigators had his flashlight pulled from his pocket. I saw it come out and hit the floor.

I made basic adjustments and lens corrections and reduced noise in Adobe Camera Raw. I added a curves adjustment layer in Photoshop.

There is a very interesting story behind these two photos. They were taken during a paranormal investigation in Cripple Creek. I chose to show the top photo because it shows how dark the room was, and I chose the bottom photo because it ties in with the story.

After several minutes of sitting in the dark I got up from the couch where I was sitting and moved to the other side of the room to get more photos. Ralph was to my left and Brandon was sitting on the flowered couch. Also notice that my flashlight is on the coffee table in photo B. That table is about 6 feet in diameter and extremely heavy. It would not budge at all if you bumped into it.

While on the other side of the room, I heard a noise that sounded like something fell on the floor. Ralph and Brandon said they heard my flashlight being dragged across the table, and it landed on the rug, parallel to the right edge of the table.

I picked it up, put it back on the table and pushed it so we could listen to the sound it made as it rolled across the top. They said that was not the sound they heard. Then I dragged it across the top of the table, and they confirmed that indeed was the sound they heard. If the flashlight had rolled from the position it was in as seen in photo B, it would have moved in an arc because the front of it is wider than the back, and it would have landed more perpendicular to the table. It also would have made two sounds as it hit the ground, since the front of the flashlight would have hit the ground before the back did.

I made basic adjustments and reduced noise in Adobe Camera Raw, then added curves adjustment layers to both photos.

This photo was taken during a paranormal investigation at the prison museum in Canon City, Colorado. It was very near this spot that I heard keys jingle on an earlier visit when no one else but me was on this floor of the building.

I became a believer in the flashlight game this night. If you’re unfamiliar with the flashlight game, I’ll explain. You take a mini-mag light and twist the cap until the light turns off. Then you set it down and start asking yes or no questions. If the light turns on, that’s an indication of a positive response to your query.

I had always been skeptical that a flashlight could be used to communicate with spirits, but I had purchased a new mini-mag light just days before this investigation, and after inspecting it said to myself that if it went off I would be convinced that something unexplainable was going on. While we performed EVP sessions my flashlight went off like crazy all evening, and it was the only one that did.

I made basic adjustments, lens corrections and noise reductions in Adobe Camera Raw. In Photoshop I added a curves adjustment layer.

This photo was taken during a paranormal investigation at the jail museum in Canon City, Colorado. I liked the way the street lamp cast this shadow of the tree onto the side of the building. I thought it looked spooky.

In Adobe Camera Raw I first used the HSL tool to change the orange hue cast by the street lamp to red, thinking that red would give it a more ghoulish look. I then made basic adjustments and added a curves adjustment layer in Photoshop.

This is a 30-second exposure taken during a paranormal investigation at the Outlaws and Lawmen Jail Museum in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

This is definitely not the stairway to heaven. Instead these are the stairs into the basement of that lead to the infamous “Ice Room.” One false move on these stairs, and you’ll be the next spirit to haunt this place. It’s a good thing they don’t bring the general public into this area. You have to hold onto the railing, which is actually a hunk of pipe mounted to the brick wall, if you want to survive any trip, up or down. Not only are the steps uneven, some of them are so worn out that only about half the boards remain. This is quite possibly the scariest thing I’ve encountered while ghost hunting.

In Adobe Camera Raw I made basic adjustments, reduced noise, brought out some detail in the shadows with the curves tool and straightened the image with the upright tool. In Photoshop, I removed some spots with the Spot Healing Brush and added a curves adjustment layer.

This photo was taken during a paranormal investigation at the Outlaws and Lawmen Museum in Cripple Creek. This is the main cell area, and we were using a laser grid to try to detect the movement of any entities present.

In Adobe Camera Raw I started by removing the optical distortion with the lens profile and upright tools. I then made basic adjustments and reduced noise. In Photoshop I added a curves adjustment layer.

This shot was taken during a paranormal investigation at the Elk’s lodge in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

My nephew, Matt Gibson, joined us for this investigation, and he got a lot of attention from whatever was there that night. Before we started, we asked a couple of the Elks about two books in their bookcase labeled “Gibson Book I” and Gibson Book II.” They explained that the popular style for women during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s was know as the Gibson Girl. The books contained pictures of Gibson Girls. While performing an EVP session in the room that contained the books, Matt asked, “Do you know someone who knows me?” We were playing the flashlight game for a long time and didn’t get any responses until he asked that question. The flashlight on the table we were sitting around lit up immediately and a little later we heard keys jingle and a loud knock on the table.

We returned to that room several hours later and sat around a circular card table. All of us put our hands out on the table with our thumbs and pinky fingers touching, and we were able to get the table to move by just thinking about moving it. I was asked to go into the kitchen to find a glass. I returned with a stemmed glass that we turned upside down in the middle of the table. All of us put our index fingers on the base of the glass, and the session leader said, “Make the glass move to Mike.” As soon as she said that the glass slid very quickly to Matt, who was sitting next to me, and we couldn’t get it to return to the middle of the table. I found out later that the glass I picked up in the kitchen was what was used to serve a drink called a Gibson, which is a martini with an onion instead of an olive.

A few days later, one of our paranormal friends sent me a clipping from the Cripple Creek newspaper with historic tidbits for the week. It said we had performed our investigation near the anniversary of an incident in which a police officer name Shea was shot and killed by the Gibson brothers in 1896. The brothers pleaded not guilty to murdering officer Shea on August 21, and our investigation was conducted on August 13th.

Needless to say, it was a very interesting evening, and we even saw a light come on in an area of the building where no one was. And to top it all off, when we left and walked to Matt’s truck to drive home, his remote wouldn’t work.

I made basic adjustments, reduced noise and made lens corrections in Adobe Camera Raw. In Photoshop I added a curves adjustment layer.